Surviving
by CarbonIsATramp
Summary: Moments in the lives of Mark and Lexie, starting from the plane crash. It might be bitter sweet, but it's not the end.
1. The Sky is Falling

Because like so many other people on here, I refuse to believe Lexie is dead. I'm just going to write a long AU story, because the grey's universe to me, doesn't exist without her.

This story will consist of random scenes from Mark and Lexie's life, because they really were meant to be, and they should get their happily ever after.

* * *

Her eye-lids fluttered. Once, twice, then opened. She squinted, light flooded in, blinding her. Through a haze she started to make out the shapes. Leaves, crumpled beside her and in the trees, so tall they looked like silent giants. Bits of plastic board. A white sneaker, its laces still untied. And more than that, the end of a plane, ripped at the middle, its insides bleeding out onto the forest floor.

Then the aches started. Real slow in her belly, then creeping up into her arms, legs and a burning patch at the bottom of her spine. It was then she truly felt the weight of the plane's wing on top of her. It had pinned her left arm and the majority of her lower body squarely into the soil. She could really feel it now. It burned and she cried out from the sharp bluntness of it. She never thought you could feel pain like this, pain like this without ending up out cold or on a stone slab in the morgue.

She cried out again, this time it came out in sobs. She wanted her mom, she wanted morphine, and she wanted mark. The last thought twitched in her memory, and suddenly she remembered somebody else's cries, deep broken cries, and words. She remembered words, words forming sentences and being said through gritted teeth.

_I'm not holding your hand because you're not dying_

Mark. His voice. His eyes, right up close by hers.

_Hold my hand, _she'd whispered.

_No, I'm not holding your hand, because you're not dying. _

He'd been angry, she remembered, he'd been upset.

But still his soft, firm hands began cradling hers. If she really focused, she could feel his breath up against her cheek as he whispered,

_I love you. I've always been in love with you; I will always be in love with you. _

There's a pause. She wanted to say it back, she wanted to kiss him, she wanted to tell him that she started feeling the left side of her body again.

_Which is why you have to stay alive._

But the words don't come, she'd suddenly felt heavy and light-headed, like she was floating on salt water. He'd continued,

_We're going to get married. You're going to become an amazing surgeon and we're going to have two or three kids._

She'd seen it as he'd said it, the two boys with dark black hair and the girl with blazing blue eyes and sandy blonde plaits.

_We're going to be happy lex, you and me._

_We're gonna have the best life Lex, you and me. _

_We're going to be so happy, so you can't die okay? You can't die! Because we're supposed to end up together. We're meant to be. _

She murmured it again now, _Meant to be. _

They were meant to be, he had said it. Lexie squinted again, trying to make out his figure amongst the trees, trying to make out any shape of a person.

But the woods were empty in front of her. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but she knew it was too good to be true.

You were in a plane crash, she thought to herself, stupid girl; think that clears you for Neuro? She wondered what kind of brain contusion would make her hallucinate. Scanning her symptoms, she tried to pick out a few conditions but her head felt too foggy and she couldn't get her brain to work properly.

She wondered if anyone had even survived. Meredith, where was she? Derek, Arizona, Cristina, they would have come for her by now, wouldn't they? They would be helping her, trying to get this hunk of plane off her. And Mark, she figured nothing must of changed, if he was alive, he wouldn't want to be with her. The thought of him made her ache almost as much as the weight bearing down on her.

The smell of birch smoking and leaf mulch stuck to her nostrils; it reminded her of campfires when she was younger with her dad and Molly, the kind of ones she'd always wanted to do with her kids some day.

She tried to shuffle her head to one side, to get a better view but her neck jarred and she yelped. She'd started to get the feeling back her legs now, and when she really tried, she swore she could feel her toe wiggling against the hard metal undercoat. Didn't really solve anything, she thought, one working toe doesn't help you shift a plane.

Pain distracted her, and now she felt the blood dripping down her forehead, leeching out of her in another dozen places. Except pain was good, she thought.

Pain was better than numb from the waist down.

Pain was you've still got a chance, pain was get this plane off me, sew me up, and maybe I'll work again.

Only it was getting dark now. It was getting dark and Lexie Grey was very much alive.

* * *

I will continue this regardless of reviews, the next chapter will be up after my exams in a few days !


	2. Bleeding Out

_I said I wouldn't upload another chapter till after my exams, but couldn't stop writing this! _

* * *

Lexie Grey was bleeding. Not the normal scrapped knee, or knife cut that got you a few stitches from the suture kit in Meredith's bathroom, it wasn't that kind of bleeding. Lexie was bleeding in a way that made her head spin, her skin pale and her palms thick with sweat. Somewhere in her body, or outside of it, there were holes and tears and rips, and she knew only a fraction would clot naturally. She was bleeding out.

She could see the cuts on her left arm were minimal, she couldn't see her right, but what really worried her was the reddening around her stomach, how the skin had become tight and gaunt looking. The sharp edges of the plane wings digging into her made her acutely aware, and the tiniest rustle of the forest sent her searching widely for the faintest signs of movement.

She gritted her teeth with the pain, trying to hold back the tears.

"Meredith?" she called out again shakily, "Derek?"

It wasn't the first time she'd called their names that night and her voice was hoarse from it. "Meredith?" she shouted again, louder.

She wanted to call his name too, she wanted to whimper and scream for him, but she daren't. It wasn't her name to call. Lexie relaxed back into the earth, taking short shallow breathes. They weren't coming, they were dead, she thought and she was dying.

At least she'd told him, at least he knew. Images of the locket flashed into her mind, the tale of the poor girlfriend never-to-be-fiancé, and how she never knew. He would know that she loved him, that she cared. It didn't matter now how much it hurt he didn't love her back. Dead people don't have feelings anyway, she thought bitterly.

But she wasn't dead yet. She would die slowly, from blood loss or some other internal injury, or maybe even the cold that was making her shake deep within her bones. If she was really unlucky, she would die from the gnawing hunger, but she doubted it.

She wanted to believe in heaven, she wanted to believe she'd see her Mom again. She so badly wanted to see her Mom again.

And then she was crying, full hopeless sobs that sent tears streaming down her cheeks. She was crying for the pain, she was crying for her Mom, for her inevitable ending here in the middle of the woods alone and even though she still wouldn't admit it, she was crying for the man that wouldn't love her back.

* * *

Arizona stroked his forehead, the man she used to hate. It seemed stupid now, the disagreements, how long it had taken them, how many disasters and tentative steps they'd had to endure before becoming friends. And now he was laying across her lap and their plane had crashed and she wasn't certain of anything anymore. He was pale and kept drifting out of consciousness; there was a word for it that wouldn't quite come to her mind, listless, that was it.

He was sick; you didn't need to be a surgeon to work that out. Arizona couldn't remember her days working in cardiology, but she was sure a quick fix cardiac surgery in the woods wasn't going to fix him. No, she thought, a hospital bed and fluids and proper post-op care would do that. It would also fix her knee; her wife would fix her knee, and wherever this blood was coming from.

They were camped around a non-existence fire, heaped in blankets and clothes from the wreckage of the plane, but it only took the edge of the cold and the damp. Derek was out of it, Meredith and Cristina were huddled together, asleep despite their efforts to keep conscious. But Arizona was awake, wide awake. A cycle of faces spun around in her head, Callie clutching little Sofia, dialling her mobile, again and again, crying loudly and gracelessly because Callie was never one for silent tears. But the more frequent of the two was Lexie. The little doe eyed resident that had captured Mark's attention since she'd been working at Seattle. The Lexie that had continuously frustrated her too no end because of Mark's inability to get over her, and then she had just gone and died on him. It was the final chapter, the end of their tragic love story. Because that's how you end real love stories, isn't it, with death and longing.

He'd been calling her name in his sleep, mumbling little regrets. She'd tried to shake it out of him, she couldn't lose him. Sofia couldn't lose him, it would break Callie. Whatever little twisted family they had made for themselves would crumble, they needed him.

She heard it barley, the crying. The forest was pitch black, the only sound coming from the rustles of the leaves and the small whispers from Mark. But there was something else, small little cries, barely audible but still there.

She thought fast, there was nobody else on the plane. They were all gathered here, even the half paralysed pilot. But the sobs continued, only when she strained to listen. She thought for a second she could pick out words, but they were distorted and jumbled by the wind.

"Crying," Arizona said quietly "Someone's crying"

Cristina stirred a little in her sleep, but nobody moved.

"Wake up" she shouted, and Meredith sat bolt upright, her hair in a tangle of bracken

"What?" she mumbled "Did someone die?"

"Someone died?" Cristina heaved herself upwards,

"No one died" Arizona interjected "No one's dying. Can you hear that?"

They paused, listening. The woods were silent in front of them; the small muffled sound had stopped.

"Sleep" Cristina grunted, collapsing back into a pile of blankets.

"No, Listen!" hissed Arizona, causing Meredith to lock eyes with her.

Meredith strained, for a split second she thought she could make out something, a low moan or maybe a quiet whimper, but then it was gone.

"I don't hear it," Meredith said quietly "Nobody's out there. The only person would be..."

She looked down at her hands "The only person would be Lexie, and she's, she's..."

"Gone" Arizona finished

A fresh stream of tears rolled down Meredith's cheeks. She looked exhausted; her eyes were scrunched and red, her hair matted with blood from a head injury no one wanted to address.

"I'm going to miss her so much," she whispered.

"We all will" Arizona soothed, reaching for Meredith's hand and clutching it tightly.

The wind dropped and suddenly they heard it, the sob, the definite very real sob. It echoed off the trees, in a high desperateness that made Meredith shiver. It was the unmistakable cries of a young girl.

The two women stared blankly, not believing.

"Lexxiee" Mark groaned, and they jumped.


End file.
